Fit a Weekend Trip Into One Backpack

Here are some items to help you get away with packing light

In an ideal world, I could pack for several weeks worth of travel into one small backpack, which if you're bringing your normal essentials could potentially be impossible. Thankfully, there's a world out there full of designers trying to make it so we can, all the while creating products we would want in our lives regardless of whether it saves us space. Whether you're going on a short weekend getaway or a week-long vacation, several of these items will help you save more room for the bulkier things you just have to bring along (like these guys).

This is definitely a design we've seen before, but that hasn't stopped this backpack from making a killing on Kickstarter due to its water resistant Cordura build, range of colors, and the fact that it can be tucked away into a little pocket if you ever don't need it. This backpack is best used as a daypack rather than for a long getaway, so I would recommend to use just for a short weekend.

If you must lug technology on your getaway, might we suggest not bringing your hefty laptop. Instead, an iPad along with one of these guys from ZAGG. This keyboard is not only cheap, it's also purported to last on one charge for weeks (available for all iPad varieties).

This brand is pretty great in that it creates clothing that's sweat and odor resistant, hydrophobic, and most importantly, fashionable. So if you do decide to bring one change of clothes on that weekend excursion, we won't tell anyone (available for men & women).

Buying a small speaker doesn't mean you have to compromise good sound, and this one from Ultimate Ears by Logitech goes above and beyond. The device picks up subtleties of sound recordings and is surprisingly loud for such a compact size while offering all of this at a very reasonable price (oh, and it's waterproof).

This very affordable charger is great because it's easy to throw in the side compartment of a backpack (it's even smaller than an iPhone) and will provide you with almost 2 full charges, making it perfect for a short camping trip. If you're looking for even more juice a care a little less about size, this charger upgrade provides 5 full phone charges!

Heavy duty tool boxes, parts organizers, and totes that can be ganged together for transport and storage.

Long popular in Europe, modular storage took a while to catch on the U.S. Festool, Bosch, and DeWalt have offered it for years, and now Milwaukee is entering the category with its soon-to-be-released Packout Modular Storage system. Like other modular systems, Packout offers contractors the ability to stack and connect

Gives you 24 feet of shelves in 12 feet of wall space

The Nebraska-based folks behind Levrack had a problem that those of you with shops will recognize. "Our shop was in need of a storage solution," they write. "Every type of shelving that we tried seemed to add to the clutter, and take up much needed wall space." You've undoubtedly seen

A lot of backers want the modular Gather system

Anytime a designer is looking to get something crowdfunded for 18 grand and winds up with a nearly quarter mil, they have our attention. And we like sharing these things here to inspire you design entrepreneurs with success stories. As we've seen,

This studio hack will make your space more productive for less money

Every design studio goes through mountains of post-it notes while brainstorming and charting ideas. We love the portability of flip-chart posters, but even after moving to a big studio in Salem we never had enough wall space. Then we found Make Space by Scott Doorley and Scott Witthoft at